San Javier airport to close as Aena awarded management of Corvera

The French company Edeis has withdrawn its tender for the management of Corvera airport, which leaves the door open to Aena.

The Murcia government will now have to evaluate the details of Aena’s offer, but everything indicates that with only a single offer on the table Fomento will have no alternative other than to accept Aena’s bid.

It is now expected that with only a single document to analyse the regional government will meet with no alternative other than awarding the contract to the Spanish operator on Friday.

Once that is done, the company will have to request the necessary authorisations from the Ministry of Public Works and the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) to open the airport and begin with it’s operation, since the permits that were obtained by the the former Aeromur management are now void.

These measures will likely take a few months as in the case of Aena, which manages the national network of airports, including San Javier, the operator has extensive experience in these procedures.

Once the concessionary contract is signed, Aena will then prepare a plan for the transfer of its airport activity from San Javier to Corvera, which will include moving workers from the public-private partnership. It is likely that there will be a period of coexistence and overlap between both airports.

In the transfer process, the future of the workers of the auxiliary companies that operate in San Javier and the service contracts that bind both parties will also be decided, as well as the heritage value of the facilities shared with the Ministry of Defense.

The Corvera airport concession will be for 25 years, in which Aena will have to pay the Murcia Autonomous Community a progressive fee of 0.73 to 2.52 euros per passenger. The regional Administration is paying the guarantee of 182 million euros but it still must liquidate the previous contract with Aeromur.

The Minister of the Presidency and Development, Pedro Rivera, stressed that Aena “is the leading Spanish management company in the airport sector, completely solvent and offers guarantees for the management and operation of the airport.” This company operates 46 airports in Spain and manages another 15 in Europe and America and is the premier airport operator in the world by number of passengers; where, in Spain alone, it transports more than 230 million passengers per year.

Aena have so far failed to comment on the matter limiting themselves to confirming that their technical and economic offer «guarantees the profitability of the airport for the Autonomous Community and for the company itself».